Immunology & vaccination

Photograph courtesy of Jackie Cook

Immunological research undertaken in the Malaria Centre aims to understand the mechanisms of immunity and immunopathology in order to facilitate vaccine design and the identification of additional therapies for treatment of severe malaria.

There is now a broad consensus that if there is to be an effective vaccine against malaria it is likely to comprise combinations of different vaccine candidates which target different components of the parasite or different stages of the life cycle; it is therefore essential to identify a wide range of vaccine targets. Moreover, a variety of different immune responses to these potential vaccine targets need to be assessed in the laboratory before the vaccine can be deployed in clinical trials.

Although the RTS,S vaccine, has been shown to be effective in several studies across Africa, numerous challenges remain in developing more highly efficacious and durable vaccines; in developing vaccines which prevent malaria transmission as well as preventing disease; and in providing adjunct therapies to reduce the impact of malaria-associated immunopathologies. Researchers in the Malaria Centre are using a combination of molecular, immunological, epidemiological and mathematical modelling approaches to investigate these issues.